Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a street urchin, spec. a newsboy, e.g. cite 1880; cit. 1975 refers to a teenage gang member.

1847		T. Guthrie Plea for Ragged Schools 19: These Arabs of the city are wild as those of the desert, and must be broken in to three habits,—those of discipline, learning, and industry, not to speak of cleanliness.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 388: Ned Raggabones and Robin Barelegs, street Arabs, threw ‘cart-wheels’ into the midst of the throng.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 413: Base-born, workhouse-bred! Tossed from workhouse to prison, from prison to hulk – every man’s hand against him – an Arab of society.
1860		Bell’s Life in Sydney 31 Mar. 3/3: James Moore and William Morris, two ‘Arabs’ of the respective ages of twelve, and fifteen years, .
1866		Wild Boys of London I 35/2: With a delicacy for which few would have given the wild city Arabs credit, they arranged her garments over her helpless limbs.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 77: The genuine alley-bred Arab of the City; the worthy descendant of a tribe that has grown so used to neglect that it regards it as its privilege.
1870		Appleton’s Journal (N.Y.) 16 Apr. 434/2: The ‘sympathy of an audience’ might be used to influence these wild and untutored young Arabs.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 30: They were of all grades of society, from the City merchant to the wretched little street Arab.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 May 4/1: An enterprising (Sydney) newspaper proprietor recently advertised, that he’d give [...] bonuses to those news boys who, [...] would sell most copies. Of course, half-a-dozen arabs dabbed together, and one of the number bought for the lot. The newspaper proprietor now says that street arabs are smarter than capitalists.
1881		Nottingham Eve. Post 28 Jan. 4/5: ‘Halloa! Nosey,’ said a closely-polled specimen of the genus London Arab.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 5/4: A street Arab was about to take French leave to seat himself on the step of a ’bus, but, discovering to his dismay that this particular ’bus rejoiced in an Italian conductor, took the bull by the horns, and demanded: ‘Say, mate, I suppose there’s no harm in my resting my trotters behind this yer wagon o’ yourn?’.
1889		Bowyer & Baker [perf. Jennie Hill] Thereby Hangs a Tale 🎵 Who is this comes bounding three stairs at a time / ’Tis a London Arab born and bred in crime.
1891		J.A. Riis How the Other Half Lives 196: The Street Arab has all the faults and all the virtues of the lawless life he leads. Vagabond that he is, acknowledging no authority and owing no allegiance to anybody or anything, with his grimy fist raised against society whenever it tries to coerce him, he is as bright and sharp as the weasel, which, among all the predatory beasts, he most resembles.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 23 Dec. 5/8: He made a grab at the street arab and succeeded in pulling him almost rom under the horses’ feet.
1898		(con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 1: I dodged about London streets, a ragged Arab, with wits sharpened by the constant fight for food.
1901		Regiment 27 July 5/1: first street arab (pointing to the hussars’ busbies): ‘Pipe them ’elmets, Bill; is them wot they clean their cannons out wiv?’ Second Arab: ‘Garn! Them’s their old wimmmen’s muffs’.
1906		J. London ‘Brown Wolf’ Complete Short Stories (1993) II 1073: ‘You outwhistle – ’ ‘Orpheus.’ ‘I was about to say a street-arab,’ she concluded severely.
1911		Truth (Wellington) 11 Nov. 7/1: The street arabs of Auckland are possessed of a great deal of ingenuity and a sense of humour.
1923		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 24 July [synd. col.] Manhattan’s plucky army of newsies! Those Arabs of the Asphalt!
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 10: A gutter-bred street ‘arab’ born into a criminal environment.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 9: Tossing grubby hair back, the arab swiped the hand roving near his stuffed jersey.
1975		Sepe & Telano Cop Team 46: Sepe never took his eyes off the street Arab who had hurled the rock.
1980		M. Thelwell Harder They Come 157: You dutty little street Arab you.

2. (US) any wild or excitable looking person.

1903		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN III:v 295: arab [...] n. A wild looking or acting person.
1909		J. Washburn Und. Sewer 189: They are society dudes and imagine they are making a hit with our girls, by exhibiting their toughness [...] all this produces a ‘red-headed’ effect upon all of us, which means that the Arabs must ‘skidoo’.
1979		(ref. to 1850) Maledicta III:2 154: Arab n [DAS ca 1850] 1: Any wild-looking, excitable, primitive, passionate person.

3. (US) a smoker of Camel cigarettes.

1926

Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: Arabs - Camel smoker.

4. (US) a derog. term for a Jew [coined by Variety magazine writer Jack Conway c.1925].

1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 560: [Jack] Conway, who died in 1928, is credited with the invention of palooka (a third-rater), belly-laugh, Arab (for Jew).
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 86: The manager found out that three of us were Broadway arabs from the tribe of Israel.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 34: Stone the crows! If it isn’t me old mate Norm the arab.
1979		Maledicta III:2 154: Arab n [...] 2: Jew or Turk.

5. (US) a street peddler.

1942		Sun (Baltimore) 15 July 4: These [watermelons] are mighty good when we get them in our markets or from Arabs that peddle them around [W&F].
1979		(ref. to 1935) Maledicta III:2 154: Arab n [...] 3: [DAS 1935] Huckster or street vendor, especially with Central European or Middle Eastern coloring or features.

6. (US) a street bookmaker, an illicit bookmaker.

1955

in DARE.

7. any dark-skinned person, esp. one suspected of being a terrorist.

2009

Observer Mag. 4 Jan. 22: The turbaned character is set upon by the police, who panic, call him a ‘Fuckin Arab’ and haul him away.